No thank you Kurosawa, The most disappoint film by the late master. It is of course beautifully photographed, beautifully acted with a sterling cast. The problem is the story. Tabloid-style thugs take a misleading photo of two people, one famous, the other less so, but also well known. It sells a lot of smutty magazines. The male decides to sue and contracts with a shady, descrpit lawyer. There is a precious, sick little girl thrown in. Instead of being a story about the scandal and the offended couple, or even the smutty magazine, it is really about the drunken, terrible attorney, say 80 per cent of the story. There are japanese people buying Christmas trees and singing anglo Christmas carols, and this part of the story is just incomprehensible. It is a big part of this story. The famous woman singer sings like a western opera or broadway singer, singing anglo songs as well, which seems just strange, there is nothing Japanese in her nature or in her voice. 1950. What was going on here? Was it made this way to pass the censorship of US control? This would never be recognized as Kurosawa work if we did not know it already. I watched the entire movie only because he made it and at the end was severely disappointed.
